Not all keyboards are created equal. There are so many different designs out there that no matter what you are looking for, you can find it somewhere. It is often harder to pick what you want than to actually find the design elements which you have decided upon.

The Das Keyboard does not try to lure consumers in with flashy features, extra buttons, or cool lighting. Instead, its main selling point is its lack of a certain feature that everyone has come to expect from their keyboard. This keyboard has no characters printed on its keys.

Whether you see this as a way to improve your typing skills or an affirmation of your geekdom, this keyboard has created quite a stir in the media. This review will be taking a look at this keyboard to see if it measures up to the hype and its steep price.

The Das Keyboard (literally “the keyboard” when translated from German) arrived in a cool, keyboard-shaped box which did a great job of protecting it from the elements and (a more likely source of damage) delivery men. Inside the box was simply the keyboard and some product literature.

The first thing anyone will notice about this keyboard is the fact that lacks any sort of printed characters on the keys. The designer of this product wanted to make a keyboard for computer elites. These people ostensibly have the standard 104-key layout memorized to the point that character inscriptions are only holding them back. The included flyer points out that if there are no keys to look at when you are typing you will look down less and soon be able to type more rapidly.

Examining the keyboard you will find the most standard interpretation of the 104-key layout available. Everything is right where it should be and Das Keyboard did not add any extra keys or move around the existing ones. If this layout was any more old school it would have an “L” shaped carriage return! This is not a bad thing though- this set up is proven to be fast and effective, and the fact that it is very standard means you will be able to adapt to it faster.

The Das Keyboard is only available in black, which should be fine for most users since the whole point of this product is to be cool and low key. Seeing it on someone’s desk simply screams “expert” and “too cool for key inscriptions”. In fact Das Keyboards are for “ubergeeks only” according to their web site.

– Phantom key lockout: good for serious gamers who needs to press multiple keys at the same time.

If you follow keyboard specs closely (no, seriously…)then you will notice that the Das Keyboard is extremely similar to some of the keyboards from Key Tronic, especially the LT Designer Keyboard. It should be noted that the Das Keyboard uses a USB connection while most of Key Tronic’s boards, including the Designer, use PS/2.

Here is a close up of the keys. You can see that they are, in fact, blank. The keys each require one of five levels of force to press them down. A standard keyboard needs about 55 grams of force to depress any key but the Das divides the keys up into group. A specific group is designed in the strength of the finger which presses the key and the force level varies from 35 to 80 grams. This makes typing comfortable and buttery smooth. Here is a chart which shows the location of each key section.

The keyboard’s aesthetics are hard to complain about. They are certainly not starting any fashion trends but there are are no strange or outlandish features, so what could be wrong? There are two areas in which I would like to see improvements in the “Looks” department. The first is the badge in the top left. Here is the “Das Keyboard” logo in plain white and a completely utilitarian font. It does not look bad but if you are going to mar the blank keyboard with printing you should put some effort into it.

The second area is above the number pad. Here Das’ designers chose to go with green LEDs, which is pretty standard though an upgrade to blue would be nice given the price of this board. Green LEDs are about as unique as a beige case and the certainly do not say “expert” to passersby. Also this area has the labels printed next to the LEDs! What happened to at that stuff about this being a keyboard for the elite and having the keyboard completely memorized?

The back of the Das Keyboard is quite plain, though they did slap a large “Sample” sticker on ours. The keyboard is held firmly in place with four rubber feet, two of which can be raised to tilt the keyboard up a few extra degrees.

With the rear feet down the keyboard has a comfortable tilt level but it is nice to have to option to increase this. When raising the feet there is a very loud “click” which signifies that the feet are not going to revert to a down position if you push the keyboard backward. The cable, which is sufficiently long but rather on the thick side, can be routed either out the back of the board or the side. This makes running the cable just a bit easier, which is a nice gesture given the increasing popularity of wireless input devices.

When put to use, the Das Keyboard did quite well. The action of the keys is very responsive and the membrane switch allows for a definite “click” point without the mechanical feel of a very old-school model. The 104-key layout cannot be faulted, it is easy to become adjusted to and is optimized for fast typing. In the included information Das says you may type up to 100% faster in a few weeks. While this is not guaranteed, this is still quite a claim.

After using the Das Keyboard for two weeks I have found that my typing speed had increased a bit when doing extended periods of typing, like a long email or article. This is due to the fact that you no longer rely on the printed characters; even if you can touch-type many people still look down now and then. Even if you are just glancing, this is enough to slow you down; with the Das Keyboard this is not an option, though you can look to see the position of a key, which, for advanced users, is just as good as having a character printed on it.

The problem with the lack of characters is twofold. The first is the minor issue of having other people using your computer. If these other users cannot type as well as you they will quickly become frustrated. Other people rarely use my computers, but when my girlfriend had to write a few emails she was certainly not a fan of the blank keys. This is not a major downside because the Das Keyboards will probably be used at work or on computers where there is only the primary user to worry about.

The second problem with the blank keys occurred when I was surfing the internet. During this time I would be primarily using the mouse and doing a lot of reading. This meant that my hands would be up from the keys a lot and I would only occassionally be typing a few keys, for example typing a URL or hitting Ctrl+F. Without your hands properly placed on the keyboard individual keys are a good deal harder to pick out than it would otherwise seem. This will get better with time but it will probably always be a minor issue. This problem carries over to when you are looking for something that you do not use frequently, like a curly brace or ampersand. These characters are easy to locate normally, but with blank keys even the best typists may get tripped up.

Conclusion

This keyboard has two main selling points, announcing your status as an advanced computer user and eventually increasing your typing speed. While not everyone is going to want to make it more clear that they are an “ubergeek” the increased typing speed would be nice. The unavoidable problem with the Das Keyboard, aside from the typing issue mentioned before, is going to be the price. At eighty dollars this keyboard is not at all cheap, especially considering that is it not wireless and has no extras. The fact that it feels great and has very nice key response is not going to be enough to win many people over. Furthermore, if one truly is an elite geek they are probably very familiar with keyboard mods like this one, in which you can make the keys on any keyboard blank for almost nothing.

Das Keyboard would be a great gift, especially for someone who frequently gets you out of computer trouble. In this instance you probably would not want to hand over a spraypainted version of your old keyboard and the money will not matter as much (depending on how much they have helped you).

The Das has not completely won me over as it does have some strengths but also some weaknesses. I do like how it turns people away from using my computer and I enjoy the confused looks I get when guests visit. I also think the feel of the keys and the layout of the DK is one of the best on the market, so long as you are looking for something very basic, with no additional functions or extra ergonomic considerations. Though I have been using the keyboard just a couple weeks I have noticed that after the first sentence or two of an extended document the letters will being to flow out extremely quickly and with surprising accuracy.

On the other hand, the Das makes it unnecessarily trying to hunt out certain individual keys, like when I am on the internet and trying to locate the “F” key to Find, or the “D” key to bookmark, and I don’t get it until my second try. This does not lose much time but it is frustrating. This has gotten noticeable better each day but I am not sure it will ever completely go away, especially because I have to use multiple keyboards daily so I am not able to get perfectly acclimated to any one of them. This keyboard is a good typer so I see it as being more than a novelty but until the price drops or it has some extras.

Birdie (+)
– Well designed
– Can improve typing speed
– People will recognize you as a computer expert